Some of you might recall when I installed the last supposedly super-minor iPhone OS 3.01 updater that fixed an SMS security issue. My nearly virgin iPhone 3GS went through the update process like a trooper. But once done, I discovered I couldn't launch a single 3rd party app (is that excessive security or what?). A restore and one hour later, and the problem persisted. So I set it up as a new iPhone from scratch. That worked but was as much fun as watching Barney and Friends re-runs for 2 hours.

So iPhone OS 3.1, just announced today by Darth Jobs had me shivering in my purple dinosaur-hating boots. But as Editor in Chief of a mobile technology online periodical, I knew it was my responsibility to risk my iPhone and sanity ASAP. Really, all the many iPhone OS upgrades since the days of my iPhone 2G original model went fine-- what, me worry?

And fine it went this time. Though it took about 5x longer than usual to download the new iTunes thanks to millions of friends joining me around the world and clogging the pipes to Cupertino, the iPhone OS 3.1 updater (around 300 megs) downloaded quickly enough through iTunes 9. I did have to importune iTunes to check for the new OS as it didn't see it at first launch. Once prodded it found and downloaded my update.

Flashing the iPhone took about 5 minutes and I was back up and running with data intact, 3rd party applications running as they should and a few new features waiting for exploration. These include voice dialing over Bluetooth headset (press the button on your BT headset to start voice command), arranging apps inside iTunes, Genius recommendation features, security fixes with Exchange passwording and saving video received via MMS (say what, my AT&T iPhone doesn't get MMS) to the camera roll.

Whew

Off to indulge my obsessive compulsive side by arranging my many apps using iTunes.

Under 3.0, A2DP audio was out of sync with video so often that I could really only use it with audio-only content - using it for TV shows or movies was just painful.

Under 3.1, A2DP is sometimes out of sync but often in sync, and even when it is out of sync, it is off by a smaller margin than 3.0 was.

If A2DP has worked better for you than it has for me, it's probably because you have a 3GS, whose fast processor seems less susceptible to sync issues. But I'm definitely not the only one having audio sync issues with A2DP (check out some of Menny's posts at Brighthand...).

Boot time for my iPod touch under 3.0 was crazy - I'd say about two full minutes. Now it just boots up in a few seconds like most iPhones have normally done.